Couples Therapy
by taybaby2111
Summary: Rose Hathaway lived a charmed life, great family, great friends, great boyfriend, great job. Until Dimitri came along. Pulling her into a world of isolation she's never known, she ultimately hated her captor for what he'd done. Until she found the truth. Finding a love for him that no one understands, she figures if she can't help him, maybe someone else can.
1. Prologue

_"_ _It's hard to hate someone once you understand them."_

Never in a million years did I imagine myself living my life in isolation—nonetheless enjoying it. Never did I once think I'd be happy away from the people who care about me most. But most importantly, never once did I think I'd be defending the one person who took everything from me, and managed to give me more than I could've imagined.

* * *

 **SURPRISE SURPRISE! AGAIN!**

 **Since I can't seem to figure out what happened to my DYTOM documents, until I find it, because I had about 3000 words written, I decided to give you guys one of my newest story ideas.**

 **I'm honestly not sure where the idea for Couples Therapy came from, but it kinda did. And I know the prologue wasn't much, but more is to come. This will most likely be my only story rated M, this will contain a lot of sexual content, and if anything is triggering to people, DO NOT read this story. Things to look out for:**

 **1\. This story will contain detailed descriptions of sexual activity. Nothing too hasty, but it's definitely a bit out of my usual comfort zone.**

 **2\. This story will depict kidnapping and Stockholm Syndrome (a love for one's captor).**

 **3\. This is not a Dimitri you all will be used to seeing. He is very damaged in this story. Rose will be her usual self, but I want to prepare you all for an almost completely OOC Dimitri. Sorry :/**

 **4\. This story will also touch on domestic violence, isolation, and anxiety.**

 **And I promise, this is not Fifty Shades of Grey.**

 **It is definitely a lot darker than what I'm used to writing. It's going to be very weird writing a Dimitri that people _won't_ be rooting for. But I guess that's just how I roll :)**

 **And just to give you guys and idea of how this story will flow, it will be a _NON-LINEAR_ plot line. I will jump back and forth between past and present, and just let me know in reviews if it become confusing in anyway. And, there will be a lot of flashbacks. I love using flashbacks because they help fill in gaps that can't necessarily be explained in regular plotline. This whole story is basically one big flashback... lol.**

 **Alrighty! I will be sure to let you guys know when DYTOM is back in full swing, just check the story for updates!**

 **First chapter of this story in the works!**

 **-Tay**


	2. Cooperation

**_Surprise guys!_**

 ** _I know it's been RIDICULOUSLY long since I've update but here I am!_**

 ** _A chapter for Forever and DYTOM is in the works!_**

 ** _-Tay_**

* * *

 _5/7/14_

 _My life ended before it began. And not in the way you might think._

 _My life was basically a dream. I was in a committed relationship with someone that I loved, someone who basically gave my life purpose. I had great friends, family, and I had recently landed the job of my dreams._

 _I'd dreamed of training athletes. I wanted to be the one who pushed others to their limits, who showed someone that they could become anything they wanted with hard work and determination. So a massive student loan and a four-hour drive later, I was in school, studying to physical education and training. And it was because of my study that I met Adrian._

 _He was a nursing student. It was his day to be the campus EMT and by noon, I had already hurt myself. Usually, I was good at recovering from any problem, scraped knee, sprained ankle, twisted wrist. But this time, I hit my head, hard. My vision was blurry and my world was spinning, but Adrian rushed me to the campus hospital and had me treated for a concussion. When I woke up, not only was I insanely confused, but a random phone number on the bedside table left me a bit more puzzled than before._

 _I called it, and he told me just about everything, including the fact that he'd been admiring me from afar since I began school, and that he had wished for his chance to ask me out, but he was constantly busy. I suppose him gathering the nerve to say that he was thankful for my concussion made him seem quite intriguing, so when he asked me for coffee, I couldn't refuse._

 _The one thing that I hated about Adrian was his lack of common sense. He was never good at picking signals, and when I had to tell him things straight up, he still acted like he had no idea what I was talking about._

 _And our relationship spiraled from there. The miscommunication, the arguing, the god-awful makeup sex. But I stayed anyway, because my father liked him, and he was contributing to my schooling. I felt bad for using him, despite my horrible attitude and snarkiness, I never did things like that. But I needed the money, all of my dad's savings were going towards my mother's medical bills, and I wouldn't have made it through college without Adrian's help._

 _The one prop that I can give myself is that I really did love him through all of it._

 _I tried to make myself believe that I was happy, but eventually, Adrian came through. He began behaving like an adult, he listened to me, he pleasured me the way I wanted, and he apologized for being so insubordinate. I should've been the one apologizing, he'd lent me at least $30,000 and didn't think anything of it._

 _I mean, the sex was never as great as it is with Dimitri, but it was somewhat satisfactory._

 _So I pushed any and all thoughts of leaving him out of my mind. I owed him._

 _So when the love of my life came along, he was basically another Adrian, only wanted for himself, and would do anything to get it._

 _But the difference between the two of them was only one of them truly loved me back._

 _Dimitri had been doing this for a long time. Granted, he hadn't yet been successful in any of his recent endeavors, he was trying. He needed someone to curb his insatiability. He couldn't do it on his own._

 _Nobody understood him. Nobody knew what he went through on a daily basis. Nobody knew what it felt like to think that no one loved you. That no one appreciated you or cared about you in the slightest. He knew what that felt like. And he needed someone to make him forget about it._

 _Dimitri lost his virginity in the ninth grade, with a girl whose face he can't even remember. He was bat-shit drunk that night, and only remembers waking up in someone's closet with his pants down and a used condom in the corner of the tight space. His head was throbbing, and his body was tired, but he pulled himself together and managed to get home, only to be beat all over again._

 _He didn't want to talk about that._

 _Ever since, sex wasn't about love or connections. It was about playing games._

 _Sex was power. Power was sex. The both of them, equally animalistic and dominant, were Dimitri's two favorite things. If he called the shots, he had the power over the sex. And because of the sex, he felt powerful. The two went hand in hand._

 _And despite all this, he remembers feeling more affection during that one moment of passion than he ever did at home._

 _Women practically threw themselves at him. Even in high school, he had dozens of girls wanting the 'Dimitri experience,' begging him to give it to them in the worst way. But now, as an adult, with a paying job and a place to live, still looking handsome as ever, still hasn't been able to find anyone to love him the way he needs it. To make him feel powerful the way he likes. He had been so used to giving out pleasure, he wanted to experience the feeling of someone giving him everything he wants. Someone pleasing his body and mind the way he likes._

 _He was surprised when she came along. Initially she was hesitant, especially considering he practically kidnapped her, but he figured if he was gentle with her and presented her with options, she'd be more than likely to stay. He didn't want to force her into anything, but with a face and a body like hers, he'd kill to get his hands, and mouth, on it._

 _And she said yes._

 _It was like all his prayers had been answered, like an angel had been sent to him from heaven. His intentions weren't malicious, all he wanted was someone to have sex with, and she agreed quicker than he'd expected._

 _But he didn't expect to fall for her the way he did. She showed him that there was more to life than wallowing in misery and feeling sorry for himself. She opened his eyes. It meant even more to him that she threw everything away for him._

 _He loves her more than life itself. He will love her until he dies._

"Dimitri, we talked about this."

Dimitri peered over at Dr. Blankenship, his eyes straightening into thin lines. "We talked about what?"

"Stop referring to yourself in the third person in your journals."

Dimitri rolled his eyes, and instinctively squeezed Rose's hand tighter. "That's how I like to write. Why the fuck is it such a big problem?"

"It's a problem because you continuing to pretend like this 'person' isn't you is going to disconnect you from the real world. You'll think that 'he' has all these problem instead of you."

Dimitri laughed sarcastically and rolled his eyes once again. "You think I don't know what I've done?"

"I know you do." She said, her eyes flickering back and forth from Dimitri's face to Rose's poor hand. He was wringing the life out of it. "But if you continue to act you're someone else eventually you'll start to believe it."

"How stupid do I look? I know exactly what I did! I ripped Rose away from her life, I abused her, I made her feel worthless, yet I'm lucky enough that she still loves me. I'm doing this for her. Unless she tells me to stop writing in the third person, I'm going to keep doing it."

The both of them looked right at Rose. She rolled her eyes, copying Dimitri, and looked at him annoyingly. "Write it like she tells you to, Dimitri."

Throwing her hand back at her, Dimitri stood up and rammed both fists into the wall. Dr. Blankenship took a few steps back, and Rose just sat there, not even flinching at the loud bang resonating through the room. "Why do you do this to me?"

"You said you'd stop writing like that if I told you to, now I did. Now write it like she fucking said to."

It was ridiculous how motherly Rose felt towards him sometimes. She had to reprimand him at every turn. She was more like a caregiver than a lover, and she absolutely hated it.

She and Dimitri had many wonderful times together. Their best era in her opinion, was about a year after he'd 'took' her. She never viewed it as kidnapping or abduction, honestly he saved her. She led a life she thought she was happy with, and she never realized how liberated she actually was with Dimitri. She didn't have to please anyone, meet anyone's standards. She could work, and go out, and shop all she wanted. As much as she didn't want to admit it to herself, Rose had more freedom with Dimitri than she did with Adrian. Adrian had her life lined up in a tightly scheduled itinerary—brunch with his parents today, dinner party tomorrow, random outing the next day, she never caught a break. The only thing she had to give Dimitri was sex, and even then, her schedule was still flexible.

Fortunately, her mother got better. Rose and her entire family thought Janine had succumbed to the cancer lining her cervix, but an emergency surgery and months of chemo later, Janine Hathaway-Mazur was completely cancer free. With her mother back in the picture, it allowed her father to get to the bottom in the drastic change he'd seen in his daughter. He contacted the police, sent her thousands of emails, called her daily, and even sent a search party out for her. In the beginning, she refused to tell him where she was. She was afraid her father would try to harm Dimitri or rip her away from him. But, about a year and a half later, she finally broke down and told him the truth. Obviously, she left quite a bit of detail out, but she told her father that she'd met someone new, and she was happy with him.

Despite the fact that Dimitri's initial purpose for associating himself with Rose was for sex, she taught him things. All he wanted was to be loved. He felt as if nobody loved him, and if she could prove to him that she loved him, it would completely change his perspective, and quite frankly, it did. He felt a sense of relief knowing Rose was looking out for him—even if ninety-nine percent of the time it drove her fucking insane. She was going to be there for him, even during violent outbursts like these.

"Dimitri settle down." Rose whispered, her expression still calm and still—it spooked the doctor a bit—she had no idea how Rose was so calm in the midst of one of his temper tantrums.

Dimitri took a few deep breaths, and finally sat down next to her, gripping her hand lightly. " _Moya lyubov,_ I am so sorry."

Rose kissed his hand and turned to face him. "Now, can you please listen to her and write how she asks you too?"

All he did was nod.

Doctor Blankenship cleared her throat, and eyed the both of them wearily. "So, let's discuss what I've read today."

Rose's ear visibly perked up, and Dimitri stared at the floor.

"Rose, it seems you viewed your relationship with Adrian as toxic."

She nodded.

"Why? He was taking care of you, and it seems to me that he did love you. Explain to me where these feelings are coming from."

Dimitri's fists clenched at the mention of anyone else loving Rose as he did.

Rose smirked. "You want to know something, Doc?"

The doctor nodded in turn.

"When I 'went missing.'" Rose made quotation marks with her fingers. "He didn't once try to contact me. He didn't look for me, he didn't email, call, or text me. And the next week I'm reading in the local paper that he's engaged to a wealthy heiress. He never gave a shit. And the fact that I thought he did shows how weak I was. He was trying to get in the goods with my dad, and unfortunately it worked."

"How so?"

"My father was Adrian's best man at his wedding."

"Do you feel betrayed by your father?"

"Of course I do! But I forgave him for that a long time ago."

Doctor Blankenship wrote a couple of notes down in her pocketbook, and turned her attention to the brooding Russian. "Alright Dimitri."

He looked up at her and blinked a few times, awaiting her response.

"At the beginning of your entry, when you talked about losing your virginity, what did you mean by _'getting beat all over again?'?"_

Dimitri chuckled a bit. "Are you seriously that incompetent?"

Rose nudged him. "Answer the question."

"I was beat at home, you idiot. I went home and my father used his extra time to beat me. And when he wasn't beating me, he was beating my mother and my sisters."

"I think this abuse at home is what made you so drawn to sex. You said in one section that you felt more affection during your first time than you ever did at home. Was that a revelation for you?"

"I guess it was." He said. "It wasn't until I lost my virginity that I realized how sex made me feel."

"So this is why you took Rose?"

Before Dimitri could speak, Rose stepped in. "I asked you to stop saying 'taken' and 'kidnapped' for a reason. Neither him or me view it that way."

"My apologies, Rose. But you didn't even know him until,"

"That was my loss! I love him! And it doesn't matter to me how I came to love him but I do! Just drop it!"

Doctor Blankenship sighed. "This is exactly what I'm talking about. You two have to face facts! Dimitri technically kidnapped you! You _grew_ to love him, but you definitely didn't start out that way."

"I've apologized so many goddamn times. What more can I say?" Dimitri yelled, trying to calm himself but failing miserably. "This is the hardest thing I've ever had to fucking do, and I'm fucking here, aren't I? I'm doing this for her."

"Dimitri, I understand that,"

"Obviously you don't. I'm fucking leaving."

Dimitri snatched his notebook from the doctors hand and stormed out.

"Rose, I'm sorry. I have to find some way to get through to him."

Rose clenched her fists. "You don't have to be so fucking hard on him. He's trying his best."

"I get that. But he's not listening, he won't use any of the treatments I give him—every appointment is an uphill battle that keeps falling backwards."

"I know. It's all going to shit. I don't know what else to do." Rose buried her face in her hands.

The doctor places her hands on her shoulders. "Well, getting him to write in first person is a start. It'll train him to start listening. Even if it means you reinforcing everything I say, so be it."

"Is that all, Doc?" Rose looked up, annoyance and urgency on her face.

"That's all, Rose." Doctor Blankenship opened the office door. "For now."

Rose left in silence.

* * *

 **Well... shit.**

 **Sorry guys. The chapter you saw was my draft of DYTOM.**

 **Oops.**

 **Here's the real thing!**

 **I really am sorry about the long ass wait on these. I mean LONG ASS WAIT. I've had a lot going on lately.**

 **But hear ya guys go!**

 **-Tay**


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